Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charges four individuals in BCA-led investigation into sex trafficking operation

On Thursday, August 13, Hennepin County prosecutors filed charges under seal against four individuals for operating a sprawling sex trafficking scheme in Hennepin County.

All four individuals were taken into custody without incident on Friday.

The following four individuals who have been charged each face 13 counts of promoting prostitution and 13 counts of receiving profits from prostitution.

Frank Reeves
Viktoriya Komonash
Katherine Thomes
Andrea Sampson

“The level of sophistication and victimization for profit is disturbing and these charges represent the beginning of a process to hold these four individuals accountable. I’m grateful to the BCA for their work and collaboration with us in getting to this point,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “I especially want to recognize the courage of the victims to work with the BCA and our office to help us prosecute these cases. We recognize the trust you have placed in us to hold these defendants accountable.”

Both Mr. Reeves and Ms. Komonash were actively involved in recruiting and posting commercial sex advertisements for numerous victims, setting the rates for commercial sex transactions, collecting required payments from the victims, and more.

Ms. Thomes owned and operated an online commercial sex website where various victims were advertised for transactions and collected money from the victims for posted on this website.

Ms. Sampson, who was formerly working as an attorney in the Anoka County Attorney’s Office while securing and providing locations for commercial sex transactions, also assisted in maintaining shell companies to hide and funnel profits from the trafficking ring.

Case Numbers:

Frank Reeves: 27-CR-26-20951
Viktoriya Komonash: 27-CR-26-20947
Katherine Thomes: 27-CR-26-20953
Andrea Sampson: 27-CR-26-20948

If you or someone you know is a victim of sex trafficking, resources are available at sexualviolencecenter.org.

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